Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) takes questions from reporters after announcing she will run for president in 2020 outside the Country View Diner, January 16, 2019 in Troy, New York. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

TROY — After once opposing it, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on her first day as a Democratic presidential candidate said she now supports granting drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants.

“I think we have to make it possible for people to provide for their families,” Gillibrand said as she was leaving her campaign kickoff event Wednesday morning at a hometown diner in the Town of Brunswick, just outside of Troy.

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The position is a switch from when she was an upstate congresswoman and opposed then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s ill-fated 2007 plan to grant driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

“We need comprehensive immigration reform,” Gillibrand said Wednesday. “Without doing that, you’re not going to get the problem solved for the rest of the country.”

Immigration advocates in New York have made a priority of pushing the Gov. Cuomo and the state Legislature this year to pass legislation that would allow the state to issue drivers’ licenses to people who don’t have social security numbers.

The Daily News reported on Monday that the New York Immigration Coalition is planning a $1 million campaign on the issue.

Twelve states, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, already provide driver’s licenses to those who don’t have Social Security numbers.

Gillibrand aides said she first voiced support for the effort during a town hall meeting last year.